RUBBISHGOESHERE / DUMP

This whole business of documenting buildings before (and often while) they get torn down can be frustrating. A friend of mine once called it “chasing bricks” and commented that “after a while, one brick looks like another–what’s the point?” Good question, especially when the only tangible rewards are some mediocre photos and maybe a good story. Why become attached to a place that few others care about, only to see it smashed to bits? But then one day you ride past a building you’ve always been curious about, and you notice the orange safety fence and “NO TRESPASSING DEMOLITION IN PROGRESS” signs. Then Sunday morning has arrived and your glasses are getting knocked off as you squirm through a gap in the fence that is a bit smaller than it first appeared. After a while you don’t even know why you do it, you just do it, without thinking.

ABOVE: The partially demolished rear section of the building. BELOW: The front entrance of the former infirmary.  Note that the ornament above the door has been removed.

The “Mayan style” (so called because of the unusual ornamental details that were part of the facade) art-deco Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary building at 135 South Sangamon was built in 1929 to provide free medical services for the area’s poor and indigent. In 1943 the Infirmary merged with the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and in 1965 the medical services were moved to a new building that was closer to the UIC hospitals. Since then the Infirmary was used by UIC as spare office space until sometime after 2000, when the building was finally vacated. While looking online for information about the building, I came across a self-described “eclectic Christian blog” that claimed president-elect Barack Obama had an office there for several years when he ran the Annenberg Challenge, and that he shared the office with (dramatic pause…) Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers. There are more than a few problems with this story–among other things, the dates seem iffy, as pointed out elsewhere in the same blog–but I have no problem with pretending it is true, if only so I can brag that I have photographed Barack Obama’s abandoned, half-demolished former office.

ABOVE: Former office of Barack Obama and Bill Ayres, according to Teh Internets.

I never bothered to get decent photos of the exterior. With it’s somewhat fortress-like appearance the building seemed like one of those places that would stand forever as a reminder of what the neighborhood used to look like. But the residents of the gentrified West Loop area wanted green space, and proposals by Preservation Chicago to convert the building into a park field house were ignored. So the wreckers went to work and once again I found myself wandering through a half demolished building, attempting to make some record of the place before it was completely smashed to bits.

Most of the walls were knocked out, turning what must have been floors of small offices into large, light filled loft spaces. I preferred this–it was easier to see the skeleton of the building, how everything fit together. It had been a while since I’ve explored a demolition site, and even though there wasn’t much to look at I was still excited to be inside. I made my way to the roof. In spite of the overcast skies, the view of the skyline was still quite dramatic this early in the morning. A large brick building sat across the street, probably a former warehouse or factory that had been converted to modern offices. They’ll have a nice view of downtown once this building is gone, I thought. Then I saw people inside the offices (this early, on a Sunday?) and realized that they had a nice view of me, so after taking a few more photos I went back downstairs. I had seen all that there was to see, so after waiting for a dog walker to pass, I twisted myself back through the gap in the surrounding fence.

There was more sunlight the following weekend. I went back early Sunday morning with hopes of getting more interior shots, but the building was too far gone by then. I circled the block a few times and took random photos. A woman sitting in a parked car reading a novel waved at me; she turned out to be an attorney I knew from work. A photographer that I bumped into thought he knew me, but changed his mind. I later learned that the photographer was Robert Powers, the person behind the architecture blog A Chicago Sojourn. Oh well.

Anyone who is upset at the needless demolition of yet another historic structure near downtown Chicago can take comfort in the fact that some of the terra cotta ornament from the building will be used in the landscaping of the park the building was torn down for. Awesome. Maybe they’ll have a plaque of some sort too.

Related links: A photo set on flickr that has decent exterior snapshots of the Infirmary can be found HERE. Carey Primeau got some interior shots of the place and has them posted on his flickr page. And finally, the Preservation Chicago page on the building, which was on it’s “2005 Chicago 7″ threatened buildings list, is HERE.

All of the photos in this article were shot the weekend of November 15-16, 2008.